one of the culprits was clearly the uncertainty for business that has been created by this fiscal cliff threat, orders for new goods are flat. factories are cutting workers. this can be fixed. it is reversible. but the signs are clear that the damage is being done. quite a different story by the way over in china where manufacturing output, which had been slowing, picked up in november. it had months of slowdown. now, back to washington. what are the chances that lawmakers in washington will act in time to avert the fiscal cliff? if you go by what both sides are saying right now, not great. >> what we're not going to do is extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. those cost a trillion dollars over ten years and there is no possibility that we're going to find a way to get our fiscal house in order without the tax rates going back up. >> nobody wants to go over the cliff. that's why the day after the election i tried to speed this process up by making the concession to put revenues on the table. and it is unfortunate that the white house spent three weeks doing basically nothing